Book Description

Nadene Schafer never imagined a world plagued with the walking dead, and when she becomes infected with the virus, she wonders how much time she has left amongst the living.

A missile attack by the African arm of the terrorist organization known as Six releases a virus on the eastern United States and its allies. In the blink of an eye, the virus infects more than forty million Americans. The disease transforms the infected into cannibalistic monsters and spreads through the countryside like wildfire.

Nadene hopes that she can use her strange new abilities to help her friends to safety before the virus takes her life. With the living dead lurching around every street corner, the survivors are left with only two options: risk leaving their safe places to escape or remain hidden with no hope of rescue. In this new world, death watches from every shadow, waiting to sate its hunger on the tender flesh of the careless.

Nadene Schafer never imagined a world plagued with the walking dead, and when she becomes infected with the virus, she wonders how much time she has left amongst the living.

A missile attack by the African arm of the terrorist organization known as Six releases a virus on the eastern United States and its allies. In the blink of an eye, the virus infects more than forty million Americans. The disease transforms the infected into cannibalistic monsters and spreads through the countryside like wildfire.

Nadene hopes that she can use her strange new abilities to help her friends to safety before the virus takes her life. With the living dead lurching around every street corner, the survivors are left with only two options: risk leaving their safe places to escape or remain hidden with no hope of rescue. In this new world, death watches from every shadow, waiting to sate its hunger on the tender flesh of the careless.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is a genuine masterpiece of this type of genre. This book was so good I found it hard to believe it was from a first time author. Do yourself a favor and buy the book. You won't be disappointed. --Sandra Heptinstall --Sandra Heptinstall

Unlike Stephen King or even Jack London, "Dying Times" was easier to follow, and at the same time, just as interesting.An excellent read. If this book was a movie, I would be the first one in line to buy my ticket. --Nickie Hopkins

It is a well-written novel, the characters are well played out, it is a fast paced read, there is not a boring moment in the book, and the ending is just enough to make you want to wait on the next book from the series. --Greyz Grimalt

"The Dying Times" is a thoughtful read with much to be relished for readers of zombie fiction. --Midwest Book Review

The Dying Times is a fast paced story with plenty of action, some interesting characters, and enough zombie thrills and gore to please the fans of zombie fiction. --Brit, Bitten by Books

From the Author

I am so very pleased to present this story to the world at long last. Writing has always been a passion of mine, but I never pursued it until recently. I wrote the first sixty pages of this book and put it down, thinking to myself that I would never write anything that anyone else wanted to read. Almost a year later, I picked up those sixty pages again and started adding to it, little by little, until it reached over one-hundredpages. At that point I decided to let a friend look at it and tell me what she thought.

Her response was shocking to me: she liked it very much. That made me think that I might be able to finish it, and that it might be appealing to others. So, I finished the book, let my friend proofread it again, and sent it out to reviewers. After receiving several rave reviews, I said to myself, "Maybe this thing is worth publishing after all." So, here you have it, The Dying Times: Nadene's Story. I certainly hope that you enjoy reading my very first book at least as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Ok, so this story sounded good and the reviews are positive. The story even started out well. The set up went on for a while where we meet 2 families, including one girl who gets stomach cramps when something bad is going to happen (no explanation given at all). That's a little odd, but ok, I can deal with that. Then it just all fell apart.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So, the US is attacked by biological weapons. People start to flee the cities. After getting to know the two families, we then leave the one behind as a mother and her young daughter decide to head away from the attacked area to Texas. Ok, so far so good. But then the crazy begins. While getting her car from where she works, the mother is grabbed from behind by a smelly, drunk, homeless person who scares her. Ok, that makes sense. But then when he asks her to ride with them, she says sure since he seems "harmless."

The 3 of them drive for a while (seeing no one as far as we know -- really???) then pull over to get gas. At the gas station they find a dead woman. They call the police (who actually respond) and find out that the woman's throat has been ripped out. Then a zombie attacks their car. The policeman shoots him dead (again) with some difficulty. Then the dead woman with no throat gets up and starts to attack them. More gunfire. Down she goes. Then the mother goes all nuts about how can we shoot these people since they're just sick. And the policeman procedes to explain to her what's going on. Because she's just so dumb she doesn't understand that if you're dead, have no throat, and attack people, then you aren't just infected with a virus. You aren't just angry (another one of her earlier suggestions). You are, in fact, a zombie. She still doesn't seem to think that means that they should be so mean to them, but at least she shuts up after he's done.

The policeman calls for backup, is told they don't know when it'll arrive. So he quits the force, and asks if he can travel with them. The mother (in a short burst of rationality) says he can. So they fill up with gas (which the mother says they shouldn't do because it's stealing) and then procede to drive a full tank of gas in the WRONG direction. Yes, that's right, we've got 3 adults in the car and no one notices for several hundred miles that they're going the wrong way. I'm about to give up on the story at this point but decide to push on a little further.

They get to a town that has a population of 142. They are trying to hide from the zombies (but that doesn't stop the mother from screaming at someone when she doesn't agree with them - even though they know sound attracts zombies). They find a two survivors. One is the town's police dispatcher. They make a plan for escaping and ask her if she knows her way around town. This is where my brain just implodes. Not only are you asking a town resident in a tiny tiny town if she knows the town, you are asking the police dispatcher in said tiny tiny town if she knows the town????? I just couldn't go any further. I was nearly 50% through the book so I had given it a fair chance.Read more ›

I just checked an old email address of mine, and saw that my review of this book had a bunch of comments, most of them calling my opinion a load of bull. I even had a reply from the author accusing me of being in the industry myself, and of having some ulterior motive. (Like what, I wonder?) Anyway, I felt a bit guilty about hurting his feelings, and deleted the post.

Now, five minutes later, that decision has made me feel like a bit of a hypocrite. I still stand by my review, even if the author's friends do not. It's not as if I revoke the failing grades I give my students when they cry (you see, I'm a teacher, not a jealous author,) so why would I revoke some well earned criticism? As I tell my students, it means I care about quality writing.

Here is my old review, in all it's nasty glory. :)

*As much as I love to support self-publication, books like TDT are what give the industry a stereotype of producing horribly plotted, shoddily developed wastes of time that no real publishing house would touch. Kittrell's work reads like a twelve year old's fanfiction; his characterization is shallow, the plot is boring and pointless, and he seems to think PMS is the natural state of all women, at all times, but not in a funny way. And as if that isn't enough, I haven't even gotten to the actual writing! Here is an excerpt from the novel which speaks for itself:

As they approached, a scene not as apparent as seen from the police station made itself known.

2.) The characters need not have worried about the zombies, but asphyxiation by diesel fumes. They were all goners, since the author had them spend the night in a garage with the engine running. I would have assumed otherwise if left unmentioned, but the author felt the need to specify that this was not the case.

The storyline is interesting, but the tedious and excessive irrelevant details make it a chore to read. if a random guy is wearing a mechanic uniform, we don't need to be told what he does or the how/why he's dirty, everybody knows already. A whole paragraph about it is just boring, especially when he's just another zombie. Same for the cop signaling to watch, and I'm just not going to list them all. With the book being $2.99 I don't feel ripped off, it was entertaining once I realized a lot of the book should be skimmed over to find the storyline. I'll be buying the second installment, and hope the author focuses on the plot and central characters instead of minutiae. yay for zombie books!

Love zombie books but this was just a waste of time. The characters were shallow and the plot was as hollow as a thousand year old tree. The mother invites a homeless alcoholic to join her and her daughter escape zombies, a cop that deserts his post and "OOPS" forgets about his parents and fiancée until days later,a police chief who cracks and hides in the ceiling crawlspace BEFORE the zombies even make an appearance. The cop helps save a lady and her child trapped in a house. He accidentally steps on the mutilated headless body of a baby, shoots a 6 year old zombie boy, saves the people, then takes a nap without ever asking if they are alright or check to see if they were biten. Give me a break.This felt more like it was written for (or by) a 10 year old. I'm not going to spoil the plot, or lack thereof, for anybody but get this only if your desperate for something to read and you can't find any Goosebumps books to read.

More About the Author

Brian Kittrell is a speculative fiction writer in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. Hundreds of thousands of readers have purchased and downloaded his books all over the world.

He was a communications officer with his local police department, having begun his career in law enforcement in 2006 as a detention officer. He left law enforcement to write full time in 2013.

He was married to his wife Elizabeth in 2009, and they have two children.

Publications include: The Circle of Sorcerers: A Mages of Bloodmyr Novel: Book #1 (2011, Late Nite), and The Consuls of the Vicariate (2012, Late Nite), The Immortals of Myrdwyer (2012, Late Nite), The Mages of Bloodmyr Omnibus (2012, Late Nite), The Dying Times second edition (2012, Late Nite), The War of the Dead second edition (2013, Late Nite), Prisoner and Survivor second edition (2013, Late Nite), A World Forsaken (2013, Late Nite), The Survivor Chronicles Omnibus (2013, Late Nite), and Cure (2013, Late Nite).